Monday August 13, 2012, 1:56 pm
(Photo: Eric Thayer / The New York Times - Romney and Ryan in Wisconsin)


The decision to add Paul Ryan to the Republican presidential campaign has, once and for all time, exposed the limp, rudderless vacancy that is the core essence of Willard Mitt Romney. Over the eighteen years he has been on the political stage, Mr. Romney has changed positions more often than most people change batteries. By tapping Ryan, and thus agreeing to take on the fourteen years of far-right baggage Ryan brings with him, Romney has all but announced to the world that he is folding his hand and ceding control of the party to the whacked-out denizens of his right flank.

Here is Paul Ryan in one sentence: He is an acolyte of Ayn Rand's sinister school of thought that human beings are only worth what they can earn or be sold for in the marketplace, the author of the blueprint Romney used to craft his notorious budget plan to raise taxes on 95% of Americans while cutting taxes for those who share his rarefied financial atmosphere, the latest in a long line of brigands seeking to eviscerate Medicare and make growing old in America the equivalent of growing poor again, a job-killer who wants to do away with Pell Grants in an age when educated workers are becoming harder and harder to find, a family friend of Big Oil, which explains his virulent hatred for any attempts to safeguard the environment, as evidenced by his oft-repeated claims that climate change is a giant conspiracy he says is invalidated whenever snow happens to fall, which explains his vote to overthrow the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution, his vote to block the USDA from preparing for climate change, and his vote to kill higher light bulb efficiency standards for reasons passing understanding, and let's not forget that he was a member of that very very very special cadre of House Republicans who signed a bill to make fertilized eggs into people so as to outlaw abortion, in vitro fertilization and many forms of birth control.

Why Paul Ryan? The answer lies in the cold bowl of pudding that is Mitt Romney's personal and political integrity.

Romney achieved precisely one (1) thing serving in the lone office he's managed to win in eighteen years of electioneering: a functioning health care system that covers most everyone in the state of Massachusetts. Yet he has spent this entire presidential campaign running from his own brainchild as if the Hound of the Baskervilles was snarling at his heels, all because the far-right base of his party chose to repudiate his signature achievement as a Republican governor because a Black Democratic president took his idea and championed it into national law. Anyone with even a rudimentary spine would have the fortitude to stand up for the only thing they ever got done in political life, but not Mitt. He gibbered and jabbered, and eventually folded like wet newsprint.

As a candidate, Romney has time and again pointed to his business experience as the main reason why people should vote for him. Yet, in an upcoming interview with NBC's Chuck Todd that was leaked on Friday, Romney all but begged President Obama to stop talking about his business record during the campaign: "Our campaign would be - helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon - business or family or taxes or things of that nature." Really, Mitt? Really?

Since he began running for president six years ago, Mitt Romney has been hedged in by his right flank to an increasingly great degree, entirely because the man has evinced no core set of beliefs for them to cleave to or argue against. The far right has had to contend with him and his utter lack of convictions in these last two presidential elections, so they kept pushing him rightwards in the hope that he would become one of them, and like any jellyfish in a rip tide, Romney went with the flow...until Saturday, when he found himself beached on Tea Party Island.

What Romney has now in his running mate is not just a Times Square-sized billboard advertising his fealty to the wildly unpopular social and economic policies of the Tea Party right. Paul Ryan is also a watchdog serving that far-right, a guy in the co-pilot's seat who isn't going to let Pudd'nhead Mitt soil Ryan's conservative credentials with any of the undignified waffling we've seen on a regular basis from the presumed GOP nominee since he first stuck his tepid toe in the political waters back when everyone thought Clinton would be a one-termer, too. These people do not like Romney at all; he is a means to an end for them, like a condom or a wad of toilet paper. They own him now, period, end of file.

Mitt Romney does not want to talk about Romneycare. He does not want to talk about his business record. With the addition of Paul Ryan to the ticket, there is suddenly a whole trainload of new stuff to talk about, and Mitt better say exactly the right things, or the watchdog he's running with just might decide to show his teeth and sink them someplace tender. Ryan isn't concerned; he'll still be on the ticket for his Wisconsin House seat in November, so he has two chances at public office before the day is done. As far as the Tea Party is concerned, they own the GOP at this point, so they got what they came for, win or lose.

Thirteen Tuesdays from now, we'll see what Mr. Romney gained, and lost, by handing his fate over to the people who like him least in the world. A man would be worried about something like that. Pudd'nhead ain't care.
***

By William Rivers Pitt | Truthout |

Some very good links within the article at Visit Site.

Monday August 13, 2012, 2:58 pm
Thanks Kit. I not only agree comments made in this article but loved the writing itself. Lines like "the limp, rudderless vacancy that is the core essence of Willard Mitt Romney" ... well, that gets right to the heart of it.

Monday August 13, 2012, 4:32 pm
Is GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney "a strong believer in stating your position and not wavering," as he once bragged? Or is he, as his onetime presidential rival Gov. John Hunstman called him, a "perfectly lubricated weathervane"? Take a read and decide for yourselves.

ABORTION

Flip
"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it. I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice." — Debate with Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1994

"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard." — Massachusetts Gubernatorial Debate, 2002

Flop
"Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life. You can go back to YouTube and look at what I said in 1994. I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position." — Iowa Straw poll debate, 2007

"What I would like to see happen would be for the Supreme Court to say, look, we’re going to overturn Roe v. Wade and return to the states the authority to decide whether they want to have abortion or not, state by state. That’s the way it was before Roe v. Wade. So I am firmly pro-life." — Town hall meeting, Hopkinton, NH, 2011

HUNTING

Flip
"I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." — On the campaign trail in Keene, N.H., 2007

Flop
"Any description of my being a hunter is an overstatement of capability." — Comment to a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman, 2007

RONALD REAGAN

Flip
"I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush." — Debate with Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1994

Flop
"When I was running for office for the first time in 1994, I was trying to define who I was…. I’ve said since, and continue to reiterate, that one of my heroes is Ronald Reagan." — Q&A with Human Events, 2006

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

Flip
Romney once said he was in favor of "gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly" in the military. — Letter to Log Cabin Republicans, 1994

Flop
"[Don't Ask Don't Tell has] been the policy now in the military for, what, 10, 15 years – and it seems to have worked. This is not the time to put in major change, a social experiment, in the middle of a war going on." — Presidential primary debate, 2007

VIETNAM

Flip
"I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam." — Quoted by the Boston Herald, 1994

Flop
"I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam." — Quoted by the Boston Globe, 2007

GUN CONTROL

Flip
"We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I won't chip away at them." — Gubernatorial debate, 2002

"Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts." — Signing ceremony for bill banning assault weapons, 2004

Flop
"I don’t support any gun control legislation, the effort for a new assault weapons ban, with a ban on semi-automatic weapons, is something I would oppose." — Interview with conservative bloggers, 2008

HEALTH CARE REFORM

Flip
"I like mandates. Mandates work." — Presidential primary debate, 2008

"I'm proud of what we've done. If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing [Romneycare], then that will be a model for the nation." — Speech in Baltimore, 2007

Flop
"At the time I crafted the plan in the last campaign I was asked is [Romneycare] something that you would have the whole nation do, and I said no. This is something that was crafted for Massachusetts. It would be wrong to adopt this as a nation." — Presidential primary debate, 2011

Bret Baier: "Governor, you did say on camera and in other places, at times you thought [Romneycare] would be a model for the nation."
Mitt Romney: "You're wrong, Bret." — Fox News interview, 2011

CLIMATE CHANGE

Flip
"I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. ... And so I think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you're seeing." — Town hall meeting, Manchester, NH, June 2011

Flop
"My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us." — Q&A session, Pittsburg, PA, October 2011

BUSH TAX CUTS

Flip
"[R]omney spoke at the 10th annual legislative conference organized by U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Lowell) and met with the Massachusetts delegation. ... Congressional sources said that a point of contention arose when Romney refused to take a position on Bush’s massive, 10-year tax cut plan.” — Boston Herald, 2003

Flop
"McCain opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, Romney noted. 'I supported them,' the former governor said." — Quoted in The State (SC), 2007

TAX PLEDGES

Flip
"I'm not intending to, at this stage, sign a document which would prevent me from being able to look specifically at the revenue needs of the commonwealth. " — Quoted in Union-News, Springfield, MA, 2002

"Signing the pledge now sends a very clear message to those in Washington who have voted against tax relief and for tax hikes that such actions will never grow our regional and national economies." — Romney spokesman quoted in the Boston Globe, 2007

FLIP-FLOPPING

Flip
"I’m a strong believer in stating your position and not wavering." — Comments to NARAL Pro Choice Massachusetts, 2002

Flop
"I changed my position." — Iowa straw poll debate, 2007

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/mitt-romneys-biggest-flip-flops-20120801#ixzz23TJJcVWJ

Monday August 13, 2012, 4:40 pm
Sorry the list is so long...but there you have it. Thanks Kit. I had just gotten done reading this entire article to my better half when I thought to post it, and was not surprised at all to find you had already. Good. This way many more will see it. Gotta love WRP if you like good writing, and he's right on target as usual.

Monday August 13, 2012, 5:06 pm

I don't just like William Rivers Pitt as a writer, I love his writing. He has a natural elegance with words. Even when he is being sarcastic, and that is often, it reads like prose.

Thanks for the Flip-Flop examples Robert, amusing till one thinks that this could be our next president. Then it becomes very chilling.

Monday August 13, 2012, 7:38 pm
It is so sad to see how this country's middle class is in extinction. When seeing a lady in her seventies having to work as a cashier at walmart, when visiting little towns in Texas that are virtually disappearing. The greatness of America, the American Dream, for a foreigner like me was how the middle class lived a great life. I've always been a lover/admirer of America. I've grown disillusioned. The baby boomers have been the backbone of America and now, many are losing their house, lifelong savings and having to look for work in this crazy/hectic corporate world.

Monday August 13, 2012, 7:57 pm
Thanks for the update.

Monday August 13, 2012, 8:58 pm
Ryan ='s AynR. What's in a name, it's oddly telling sometimes!

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 9:32 am
Interesting catch, Roseann!
Talked to a black friend today who said, "any woman who votes for this team is crazy." And then we agreed that any old person who votes for this team is crazy. Then came students.... and sick people.... and finally, except for the 1%, we decided that anybody who votes for this team is crazy.....

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 11:05 am
I had to read no further than to learn this guy thinks Ayn Rand's works are a role model for the kind of society he'd like to help create. Please, please, please my American friends do not let the Republicans win this next election.
Many thanks for this Kit. I sincerely trust this story is spread far and wide. I sure wish I could vote in this election.

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 1:28 pm
The great 34 year assault on the people, by the wealthy elite is almost over. I never thought so many people could be so heartless.

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 1:41 pm
Thank so much for sharing this article, very well written and to the point. KUDOS

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 4:24 pm
William Rivers Pitt always gets to the heart of the matter - even when it's about RepubliCONs who have no heart! (Or brain, or courage for that matter..;)

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 4:58 pm
"George Carlin said it back in 2005: They have made us ignorant, these people who own the country. They have made us ignorant and they have made us poor. And now the next thing they want to do is to take away our Medicare and our Social Security. He said that in 2005, and it's taken six year to make it obvious that that's true. And God bless them, these Republicans like [Paul] Ryan, you know, they may be cruel, they may be heartless, but at least they're honest. They've told us exactly what they want to do with the power that they have accumulated. They want to take away Social Security and Medicare from our senior citizens."

Alan Grayson

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 7:10 pm
Just flagged an ad. ____________________

Borrowed from Andy Borowitz: "Mitt Romney: corporations are people, dogs are luggage."

Leaked Memo from Romney to Ryan, Posted by Andy Borowitz


After watching its Vice-Presidential pick on the campaign trail over the weekend, the Romney campaign today issued the following confidential memo to Representative Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.):

From: Romney for President Campaign
To: Paul Ryan
Subject: Tweaks

We want to stress just how excited we are to have you as a member of America’s Comeback Team. The following suggestions are intended to make a super performance even superer:

1. On your first stop on Saturday, you said, “I’m opposed to Obamacare and Medicare, and also the word ‘care.’ ” Even though that was a big applause line, we’re concerned that the MSM may take it out of context.

2. Some of your proposals, while bold and terrific, may need to be focus-grouped before you go public with them. We’re thinking in particular of your town hall meeting on Sunday, when you proposed replacing Medicaid with Groupons. Also, we may want to dial back comments about putting the elderly on ice floes and letting them drift out to sea. Whenever an audience member at a campaign event needs a defibrillator that makes for bad optics.

3. Good people to quote in speeches: Ronald Reagan, Grover Norquist, Milton Friedman. Names to avoid: Ayn Rand, Marie Antoinette.

4. Just a suggestion/thought, but maybe come up with alternative ending for stump speech, other than “We’re America’s Comeback Team, and we’re going to make America come back to the year 1860.”

Other than those tweaks, just keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but nobody’s talking about Mitt’s tax returns anymore! LOL

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 7:12 pm
Noted and thank you, Kit. I think I'm getting down to the 1st question I would have of someone wanting to vote Willard/Ryan. Why would you vote for someone for Pres.---who McCain vetted as VP 4 yrs. ago, and didn't pass the vetting...and got passed up for Palin?
Loved the article and Robert's comment.

Tuesday August 14, 2012, 7:36 pm

Thanks Robert, George Carlin may be gone but his humor and many insights lives on. Jelica, I think Andy Borowitz's humor is always right on target. Thanks for sharing with everyone.

Wednesday August 15, 2012, 8:54 am
Kit B said: "Over the eighteen years he has been on the political stage, Mr. Romney has changed positions more often than most people change batteries"

You're on the right track, but he changes positions more often than most people change their underwear. 8^)

Wednesday August 15, 2012, 10:48 am
Romney/Ryan/Ruin

Wednesday August 15, 2012, 10:55 am

This election is about more than just Romney/Ryan; many state elections for Congress (both houses) are on the line, including state and local elections. Get out and VOTE! What possible difference can there be if Obama is re-elected only to face a Congress now filled republican/T's ready and willing to stop every effort to improve the United States.

Wednesday August 15, 2012, 5:15 pm
it is a philosophy that aligns with the societies with slaves and serfs in history

Wednesday August 15, 2012, 8:51 pm

Which reminds of a comment I saw from Palin. "He will put you back in chains..." I wonder if it occurred to her [Palin] that it was the worst type of comment to make.

Thursday August 16, 2012, 7:22 am
Paul Ryan is a "Randian," only when it is convenient to his purpose. Ryan is a pro-life Catholic, while the infamous Ms. Rand was a pro-choice atheist. Ryan was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth, and has never had a job that his salary wasn't paid for by the government.

As for his fiscal bona fides, he has voted yes on every spending bill that has come before him during his time in the House; including voting yes on TARP and,taking stimulus money while criticizing the process. He also votes to continually subsidize energy companies, while his family leases land to said companies. He is also on the dole for farm subsidies. He lives off the welfare that Rand ostensibly hated.

The only thing remotely "Randian" about Ryan's philosophy is in its hypocrisy; Rand who continually, throughout her life, criticized the social safety net, when sick with cancer jumped all over Social Security and Medicare (and did it under a different name so her loyal followers would be none the wiser). And, friend Ryan who blows the same smoke out of his southernmost orifice, only finds it convenient to criticize the "redistribution of wealth," when that redistribution is working its way downward; when it is for he and his wealthy cronies (oil companies, Wall Street, etc) welfare is just fine.

Finally, why is no one talking about Ryan's 09/18/2008 insider stock trades...I don't care how much Romney's and Ryan's people deny it (all three of their responses defending Ryan were lies), it was insider trading. It also strikes me as odd that Ryan's net worth increased by over 130% during his tenure in congress...the only serious job he has ever had; and one which did not used to be known for making office holders rich (my how times have changed).

Thursday August 16, 2012, 10:13 am

Thanks Vance, an interesting analysis. I have seen a number of articles about Ryan's insider trading. Though in today's world I'm not sure that is seen so much illegal as a smart guy using his position to grab some cash. At taxpayers expense, I might add. This is no longer the world when people run for positions to be a "public servant" this is a world where public office means wealth growth.

Thursday August 16, 2012, 7:45 pm
Have to share this:

Romney Girl

Thursday August 16, 2012, 7:50 pm
MEET ROMNEY GIRL: HARRY REID'S SECRET SOURCE

Miss Swiss "Bank Account" hails from Ostermundigen, Switzerland and is the proud daughter of a Nestle Chocolate factory worker and a regionally respected Cuckoo clock maker. She worked as a tax consultant for offshore bank accounts at UBS in Geneva, Switzerland from 2008-2010 where she first met Mitt Romney, who would frequently show up to the bank unannounced and throw $100 bills up in the air while shouting, "Thank God for Amnesty!"

In 2010, Miss Swiss left Geneva (after safely depositing all of her own money into a Swiss bank account) and moved to Searchlight, Nevada, where she joined a small Swiss expat community of retired yodelers and milkmaids. It was there she bumped into Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid while burning his book “The Good Fight” during a local sheep-shearing festival. Miss Swiss told Senator Reid about Mr. Romney’s tax avoidance “because I thought it was so funny that a Senator would actually think that rich people pay taxes! So silly!” Miss Swiss has not heard from Mr. Romney since he began his Presidential run, but believes he is following her on Twitter @realromneygirl.

In her free time, Miss Swiss, AKA Romney Girl, enjoys watching sitcoms like Fox & Friends, climbing the Swiss Alps, making cheese fondue, and listening to her favorite pop band Aqua.

Romney Girl recently gained public attention for inadvertently informing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that that Mitt Romney had paid zero taxes in the last ten years.

Thursday August 16, 2012, 10:06 pm
"Romney has all but announced to the world that he is folding his hand and ceding control of the party to the whacked-out denizens of his right flank." --- Amusing, because when I first heard the VP announcement, my first reaction was to think that the man who can't make up his mind on anything and stick with it, now has to tame a paper tiger or get clawed to death!

Puddn'head --- an apt name for an inept human being!

Friday August 17, 2012, 12:18 pm
Romney the Unknowable

By TIMOTHY EGAN


Ten days from now, some of the world's best-paid magicians of image and narrative will unveil a reboot of a most unfathomable man, Willard Mitt Romney, a 2012 model with a shelf life of barely two months.

The Republican National Convention will mark the fourth time in 18 years, dating to a losing Senate race in 1994, that a Team Romney has tried to construct a Brand Romney. This problem of who he is, Romney acknowledged last year, has plagued him ever since he became a public figure.

In focus groups, he's described as a tin man, a shell, an empty suit, vacuous, a multimillionaire in mom jeans. And that's from supporters.

At the convention, you can expect to hear high praise for a virtuous, disciplined, loyal person of family and faith. You will surely hear the words "turnaround" and "no apology" - both titles of platitudinous and unread books by Romney - in defense of his business acumen and unshakable view of American exceptionalism.

But I doubt you will hear anything of the real Romney because he is afraid of his own past. His life - even with prep school privilege in Bloomfield Hills, the draft-avoiding refuges of mission work in Paris and business school at Harvard, a founding role at Bain Capital from a mentor who guaranteed he would never fail financially or professionally - is not without drama.

Yet that Romney story is laden with land mines of his making. Or rather, that of his party, which has turned so quickly against common-sense solutions to the nation's problems that Romney's real achievements, and prior principles, are now toxic to most Republicans.

Start with his family. His great-grandfather was a fugitive, tracked by federal marshals as he tried to plant polygamy throughout the Southwest for a radical new American faith. It's a hell of a tale, Butch Cassidy with five wives. But Romney never mentions this arc for fear his Mormon religion will offend evangelical Christians who dominate the Republican Party.

He could talk about his father, or maybe not. George Romney, born in Mexico, was a principled politician who didn't support Barry Goldwater's nomination in 1964. He was nearly ousted from Richard Nixon's cabinet for aggressive pursuit of racial integration in the suburbs. He opposed the Vietnam War. He not only paid a much higher rate of income tax than did his son, but he made public those taxes - 12 years of returns.

George Romney would be booed at this year's convention.

What about Mitt the businessman? His years at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm, were supposed to be his chief selling point. The boys of Bain had numerous venture capital triumphs. But they also busted up a lot of lives with leveraged buyouts that inflicted heavy casualties.

Well before Democrats set out to make Bain a four-letter verb, Republicans during the primary recast Romney's 15 active years in high finance as a plunder spree. "A bunch of rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company," said Newt Gingrich. "Vulture capitalist," cried Gov. Rick Perry.

More significant than Bain's brand of "creative destruction" was how Romney himself got very rich. The bulk of his wealth came from capital gains, not salary or actual income. Those gains are taxed far less than many working people's wages, and, with offshore accounts, the rates can go even lower. The story of American inequality is in the additional tax returns that Romney has vowed never to release.

With Bain and his colorful Mormon past off the table, that leaves Romney's one-term as Massachusetts governor to highlight. He ruled as a moderate - oops, bad word. His greatest achievement, of course, was universal health care that became the template for Obamacare. He once called it, "the ultimate conservative idea."

As he shed the ideas he embraced in the Bay State and tried to become "severely conservative," Romney the unknowable became Romney the unlikable. His flip-flops were Olympic in caliber: on gun control, abortion, climate change, taxes, gays.

"Some are actually having children born to them," he said of gay couples, in disgust, while groveling in the South, as reported in "The Real Romney," the fair-minded biography by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman.

With Paul Ryan on the ticket, Romney becomes ever more hollow in comparison to the younger man of a cold-hearted-but-consistent philosophy.

A few weeks ago, Brian Williams of NBC News asked Romney if he was "unknowable to us." Great question. Romney chuckled, that nervous stage laugh, and said voters will likely wait until the debates to discern his character. Fat chance. Better to chase fireflies with a thimble, for the true Romney is a phantom - lost long ago to reinventions and calculations.

Friday August 17, 2012, 12:37 pm

Thanks Robert, I think I read this in the New York Times, maybe not it sure reads like some thing I read very recently.

Friday August 17, 2012, 3:49 pm
My republican friends (diplomatic spelling) think the dems give everything away. In other words, forget about any social services, elderly, poverty, prevention, student loan control. I steer clear of politics! I like my scrabble brunches...The earth, its creatures and its other 99% inhabitants will be in imminently more peril than we are right now if blind and hearing impaired politicians take over. Now is scary enough.

You're right Kit. We need to support the House and Senate vote as well. We should take no seat for granted in regard to incumbents.

Friday August 17, 2012, 4:54 pm
Yup.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/romney-the-unknowable/

Noticed it while looking at this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/world/europe/suspense-ahead-of-verdict-for-jailed-russian-punk-band.html?_r=1&emc=na

Riot police officers arrested dozens of them, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who is active in the Russian political opposition. Mr. Kasparov fought with the police and appeared to be beaten as he was bundled into a police vehicle.

We are different only in, or by degree. We at Occupy learned that, though this old fella avoided ever getting grabbed.

Saturday August 18, 2012, 5:15 am
Romney & Ryan are both Extremists who are working to do away with support and help for their fellow Americans who are in need of the help & support, as they both also work against the best interests of Our Nation.